Parent Newsletter
Hey everyone! This newsletter has two parts. I thought both of these articles were interesting and wanted to pass this along to you...the first addresses peer relationships and the second addresses facebook. I hope you'll take a minute to read this and think about what it means in your family. Thanks everyone!
- Baron Goins
Peer Problems
He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. - Proverbs 13:20
Barbara and I often prayed that the Lord would supply healthy friends to come alongside our kids at school and at church--friends who could be good, steady influences on them. But we also learned four critical unvarnished observations about peers:
1. Don't assume your children's peers have the same values as your family. Even if they go to the same church and youth group. Even if they seem to be like your children in most respects, don't automatically consider them good friends for your kids to be around. Exercise discernment.
2. Don't assume your children's peers are good choosers of friends themselves. Just because a boy or girl comes from a good home, you don't know the kind of friends they have. You don't know who's likely to be hanging around at their house when your children are there.
3. Don't believe everything your children's peers say. Trust me, even good teens can be deceitful. Our children had friends who lied right to our faces. They lied behind our backs. They were "good" kids by most standards, but they needed to be held accountable and checked up on.
4. Don't assume your children's peers will speak the truth to your children. More than any of the other three items in this list, this one snuck up and bit us. Our daughters had friends who were from great families but who literally tried to undermine what Barbara and I were attempting to teach.
It takes energy, foresight and thick skin to monitor your children's friendships. But whatever the cost in tension, embarrassment and involvement, it's a bargain compared to the bill some friends can run up in your children's lives.
I'm not encouraging you to give in to fear and raise loners. I'm not telling you that your kids are too good to be around others. I'm just saying that friends bear watching. Getting to know them well is a good investment of your time.
What do you really know about your children's friends? How could you find out more?
Earnestly ask God to bring godly friends into your children's lives.
Colleges scout for students on Facebook
Could your college of choice be scouting you on Facebook? The Kaplan Test Prep center says yes, as four out of every five college admissions offices use the social network to recruit new students.
The company’s senior communication manager Russell Schaffer said in an email, "We found that 82 percent of admissions officers reported that their school is using Facebook to recruit students."
Perhaps these recent statistics show colleges are putting a heavier emphasis on social media presence and clout rather than simply digging for dirt on the social sites.
In a Quora thread this week, Allison Oster, an interviewer for Harvard College said:
I do occasionally Google students I’m interviewing. So that will turn up FB profiles or anything else that is public. As far as I know, we are not given specific instructions to exclude it.
I think it’s always better to be safe than sorry - when you apply to college you spend such a long time crafting an image through your applications and essays that to be careless about your online data is just silly.
Does a FB profile or a website prejudice me before I meet a candidate?
Yes. Absolutely.
Clearly, it’s important to keep an eye on your social media presence, but it’s reassuring to know that college recruiters aren’t just looking for dirt, but rather, talent.
It’s important to carefully keep an eye on who sees your personal Facebook page. Aside from security implementations, it’s essential for students to craft their own public social media presence to align with the picture they’ve painted of themselves within their college applications.
The recently released statistics illustrate that a strong social media presence could actually help your chances of getting into college.
(Via All Facebook)